Ministers in the House of Lords
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BRIEFING PAPER Number 05226, 22 April 2020 Ministers in the House of By Richard Kelly Lords Contents: 1. Ministerial appointments: background 2. Ministers in the Lords: lists and statistics 3. ‘Outsider’ ministers 4. Accountability of Cabinet Ministers in the Lords www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library | [email protected] | @commonslibrary 2 Ministers in the House of Lords Contents Summary 3 1. Ministerial appointments: background 4 2. Ministers in the Lords: lists and statistics 5 2.1 Ministers in the House of Lords since 1979: statistics 5 2.2 Cabinet Ministers in the House of Lords since 1979 5 Should there be any Cabinet ministers in the House of Lords? 7 2.3 Historical information 7 3. ‘Outsider’ ministers 9 3.1 Gordon Brown’s ‘Government of all the talents’ 9 3.2 ‘Outsider’ ministers in other administrations 11 4. Accountability of Cabinet Ministers in the Lords 14 4.1 House of Commons 14 4.2 House of Lords 16 Cover page image copyright: CRI-1767 by UK Parliament/Mark Crick image. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 / image cropped. 3 Commons Library Briefing, 22 April 2020 Summary In theory a Government minister does not have to be a member of either House of Parliament. In practice, however, convention is that ministers must be members of either the House of Commons or House of Lords in order to be accountable to Parliament. From time to time, Prime Ministers appoint non-parliamentarians as ministers. In recent years such ministers have been appointed to the House of Lords. In Boris Johnson’s December 2019 administration, there were two Cabinet Ministers in the House of Lords (the Leader of the House of Lords and the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport). In all, 24 out of the total 116 ministers in government (21%) were in the House of Lords. In Theresa May’s June 2017 administration, the Leader of the House of Lords was the only Cabinet Minister in the House of Lords; 25 out of the total 118 (21%) ministers in government were in the House of Lords. This compares to 23% at the start of the 2015 Cameron administration and 20% at the start of the 2010 Coalition Government. Concerns were raised about ministerial appointments to the House of Lords whilst Gordon Brown was Prime Minister. Gordon Brown had announced his intention to create a ‘government of all the talents’. He appointed two departmental Secretaries of State from the House of Lords, raising some questions about the accountability of such ministers to the elected House. He also appointed a number of ministers directly to the House of Lords; a practice that has also occurred under other recent Prime Ministers. Concerns were expressed again in December 2019, when following the general election, Boris Johnson announced that Nicky Morgan, who had stood down from the House of Commons, would continue to serve as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, as a Cabinet Minister in the House of Lords. She served as Secretary of State until February 2020. In response to Gordon Brown’s appointment of secretaries of state to the House of Lords, the Lords introduced additional oral questions. Generally, members of the House of Lords ask questions of the Government. In late 2009, it was agreed that once a month time would be set aside for oral questions to any Secretary of State sitting in the Lords. This procedure was revived in January 2020, and Baroness Morgan of Cotes answered questions on 23 January. 4 Ministers in the House of Lords 1. Ministerial appointments: background In theory there is no requirement for a minister to be a member of either House of Parliament. However, in practice, for parliamentary scrutiny and accountability to work, ministers must have a seat in either chamber. Because the House of Lords is a predominantly appointed chamber, it is possible for ministers to be directly appointed to the second chamber. There are some legal limits on ministerial appointments. The House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 provides that not more than 95 holders of Ministerial offices may sit and vote in the House of Commons at any one time. There are also statutory limits on the total number of paid ministers that can be appointed, set out in Schedule I, Part V of the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975, as amended. The limit on paid ministers is 109. The full details are set out in the Commons Library Briefing Paper, Limitations on the Number of Ministers. 5 Commons Library Briefing, 22 April 2020 2. Ministers in the Lords: lists and statistics 2.1 Ministers in the House of Lords since 1979: statistics The table below sets out the number of Ministers in the House of Lords and House of Commons at the start of each Parliament since 1979. In Boris Johnson’s December 2019 administration, there were two Cabinet Ministers in the House of Lords (the Leader of the House of Lords and the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport).1 In all, 24 out of the total 116 ministers in government (21%) were in the House of Lords. This compares to 21% following the June 2017 general election; 23% at the start of the 2015 Cameron administration; and 20% at the start of the 2010 Coalition Government. Ministers by Chamber since 1979 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019 Cabinet Ministers (Total)1 22 21 21 22 22 23 23 23 22 23 23 MPs 19 18 18 20 20 21 21 21 21 22 21 Peers 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 Non-Cabinet Ministers (Total)2 33 33 31 32 34 31 30 32 36 35 34 MPs 25 26 25 26 27 25 25 28 28 28 27 Peers 8 7 6 6 7 6 5 4 8 7 7 Junior Ministers (Total) 31 29 32 33 34 35 37 38 35 37 40 MPs 28 25 27 25 27 27 29 29 25 28 31 Peers 3 4 5 8 7 8 8 9 10 9 9 Whips (Total) 20 20 20 20 22 22 23 25 25 23 19 MPs3 13 13 13 13 15 15 15 16 17 15 13 Peers 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 9 8 8 6 TOTAL IN GOVERNMENT POSTS 106 103 104 107 112 111 113 118 118 118 116 MPs 85 82 83 84 89 88 90 94 91 93 92 Peers 21 21 21 23 23 23 23 24 27 25 24 Peers as % of total 20% 20% 20% 21% 21% 21% 20% 20% 23% 21% 21% 1 This includes some occasions where the Conservative Party Chairman was a member of the Cabinet but paid by the Party not the Government 2 This figure includes law offices 3 The Chief Whip (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury) is normally listed with non-Cabinet Ministers except in 2001 and 2005 when the postholder was in the Cabinet Sources: Dod's Parliamentary Companion, 1980, 1988, 1993,1998, 2002, 2006, 2011 Hansard lists of HM Government House of Commons Parliamentary Information Lists 2.2 Cabinet Ministers in the House of Lords since 1979 The list below sets out Cabinet Ministers in the House of Lords since 1979, not including Lord Chancellors (from modern times until the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 the holder of this post was a peer) or Leaders of the House of Lords. The list does also not include law officers, who often attend Cabinet, but are not always Cabinet 1 Baroness Morgan of Cotes, formerly Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, left the Government in the February 2020 reshuffle 6 Ministers in the House of Lords Ministers.2 It does, however, include those who have held the post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister without Portfolio. Cabinet Ministers in the House of Lords since 1979 (not including Lord Chancellors or Leaders of the House of Lords) Margaret Thatcher’s Government 1979-1991 Lord Carrington Foreign Secretary May 1979 – Apr 1982 Lord Cockfield Trade Secretary Apr 1982 – June 1983 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster June 1983 – Sept 1984 Earl of Gowrie Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Sept 1984 – Sept 1985 Baroness Young* Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oct 1981 – April 1982 Lord Young of Graffham Minister without Portfolio Sept 1984 – Sept 1985 Employment Secretary Sept 1985 – June 1987 Trade and Industry Secretary June 1987 – July 1989 John Major’s Government 1991-1997 None Tony Blair’s Government 1997-2007 Lord Falconer Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Constitutional June 2003-May 2007 Affairs (note: from the passing of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 the Lord Chancellor no longer had to sit in the House of Lords) Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice May – June 2007 Baroness Amos International Development Secretary May – October 2003 Gordon Brown’s Government 2007-2010 Lord Adonis Transport Secretary June 2009 – May 2010 Lord Mandelson First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Business, October 2008 – May 2010 Innovation and Skills The Coalition Government 2010-2015 Baroness Warsi Minister without Portfolio May 2010 – September 2012 David Cameron's 2015-2016 Government None Theresa May's 2016 and 2017 Governments None Boris Johnson's July 2019 and December 2019 Governments Baroness Morgan of Cotes Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport December 2019-February 2020 * Lady Young was also Leader of the House of Lords at the same time Source: David Butler and Gareth Butler, Twentieth Century British Political Facts, 2000 and Parliamentary Information Lists, Ministers in the 2010-15 Coalition Government (SN06544) and Ministers in the 2015 Conservative Government (CBP07335) Until September 2012, the Coalition Government included one Cabinet minister, other than the Leader of the Lords, in the House of Lords: the Minister without Portfolio, Baroness Warsi.